Overflow
by lawless523
Summary: Eiri and Shuichi meet their downstairs neighbor, Granny Otoomo, as a result of a mishap in their apartment. Part of the “Unnatural Disasters” series of stories along with “Firestruck”. Three chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Rating/Warnings:** Rated M for language, adult concepts, and nudity.

**Disclaimer:** Maki Murakami, Gentosha, TokyoPop and RightStuf own the rights to Gravitation and profit from it, not me. The crafty Granny Otoomo is my creation, though.

**Summary:** Eiri and Shuichi meet their downstairs neighbor, Granny Otoomo, as a result of a mishap in their apartment. Part of the "Unnatural Disasters" series of stories along with "Firestruck".

**Word Count:** ~4,000 excluding introduction and author's note.

Written for LiveJournal's 30_kisses writing challenge community. Theme: #27, overflow

Set several years post-anime and post-manga (including _EX_) at a point by which Shuichi calls Eiri by his first name, not his assumed last name, Eiri uses Shuichi's name more often and calls him 'idiot', 'brat', and the like less often, the abandoned cat that Shuichi rescues in my story "Stray" (also part of my 30_kisses series of stories) is now full grown, and Eiri has mellowed.

_**Overflow**_

_1. __Overflow_

It all started with Shuichi falling asleep.

Well, maybe it started with a bath.

* * *

He was so tired.

Eiri had kept him up unreasonably late the night before. Where the hell did he get all that energy from? It wasn't like Eiri hadn't been busy or was coming off one of those two or three day stints of rest and respite that occurred when he'd finished work on a manuscript. Somehow, no matter how disciplined he tried to be with his writing, he was always under the gun as a deadline approached. He wound up acting like a college student who needed to pull all-nighters to finish a paper on time, and he paid for it afterward with exhaustion and collapse.

Although Shuichi was unable to resist Eiri no matter how much he had resolved to, this time he really had wanted to go to sleep after the first round. At Sakano's request, K had kept them in the studio at gunpoint until early morning for the past two weeks. When had Sakano, of all people, grown a pair? Then again Shuichi had heard rumors about Sakano and Tohma palling around behind Mika's back. Maybe the long hours were Tohma's idea. Or perhaps messing around with Tohma had cured some of Sakano's neuroses and stiffened Sakano's resolve.

Whatever the reason, the bottom line was that Shuichi was a tired puppy. He had arrived home looking forward to a home-cooked meal, a warm bath, and pleasant dreams. He expected hot sex to be on the agenda too, but not such acrobatic sex, nor for such an extended period.

Getting so sweaty between the sheets had gotten him literally sweaty, so when that pesky cat Momo woke him up demanding to be fed, he showered in preparation for a bath after feeding her. While running water for his bath, he reflected that it was a drag to be the lighter sleeper of the two of them when the cat's tummy alarm went off. Breakfast finished and wanting to check on the silly human who had rescued her, the cat padded into the bathroom and curled up on the fuzzy bathmat to which her loose fur stuck like Velcro.

* * *

"Shu! Shu!"

He was swimming in the ocean – no, he was relaxing in an _onsen _with a frog, a _kami_ and a samurai. Who was calling his name? Wait – wasn't that Eiri's voice?

He started and woke up, legs flailing. Well, he _was_ surrounded by water…

…which had spilled over the side of the tub, flooding the bathroom floor.

He looked around frantically for the cat. She hated baths. Wouldn't she have let out a howl if the water reached her?

Before he saw the cat, though, Eiri's face appeared upside down and close to his. Eiri was bending over him…turning off the faucet…

Oh shit. The bath water had relaxed him so much he'd fallen asleep and forgotten to turn the water off.

He spotted the cat. She had climbed the shelves where they kept the towels, in the process knocking off a clean towel that was now soaked. He was relieved that she was okay and had not gotten wet, although as a result of keeping him company she was trapped in the bathroom. Her yellow eyes glowed as she looked down at them from her perch on the top shelf, hunched over like a feline vulture.

Eiri frantically pulled towels down from the shelf and threw them on the floor to try to absorb the water that was sloshing all over the tile. Shuichi couldn't find the energy to get out of the tub even though he knew he should help Eiri clean up the mess he'd made.

Eiri's hands pulled him up and out of the water carefully while holding onto him tightly. Arms strengthened by hours of typing dragged him over the side of the tub until he slid onto the floor in a sodden heap.

The same hands wrapped a towel around him, patting his skin and hair dry, while Eiri held him upright.

When he finally looked up, he saw Eiri's brows furrow with concern while the rest of his face was fixed in a scowl. He continued to maintain an uncharacteristic silence. The floor was still slippery, the cat still needed to be rescued, and he'd used up nearly all of the clean towels. Maybe he was afraid of what he might say or how Shuichi would react to it.

As he continued to prop Shuichi up, the telephone began ringing shrilly. He left Shuichi leaning against the side of the tub and gingerly stepped out of the sodden bathroom. He couldn't walk any faster when he got to the hallway either because his feet were still slippery from the standing water.

Shuichi heard him say "Yes?" impatiently. "Uh huh. Yes. Okay. I'll visit her once I've got things under control up here. The water in the bathtub overflowed—No, it wasn't me. It was my idiot roommate."

Shuichi realized that he must be speaking to the building superintendent. Eiri continued to maintain the pretense that Shuichi was his roommate for purposes of the apartment, which Eiri owned. As far as building management knew officially, Shuichi rented space from Eiri. Since the apartment had two bedrooms, this wasn't completely implausible if you didn't know who the two of them were or paid no attention to celebrity news.

Eiri hung up and returned to the bathroom. Shuichi was more or less sitting up on his own now, so Eiri turned his attention to rescuing the cat and mopping up what remained of the flood waters.

Once he had retrieved Momo so she was once more able to stalk pretend mice and console herself with tidbits from her food bowl and cat treats Eiri put out for her, Eiri mopped and squeezed water out of the mop into the sink until there was no more standing water except that which Shuichi was sitting in. He was still so out of it he hardly even flinched when the mop hit him by accident.

Now that he was finished with the other aspects of the cleanup, Eiri turned his attention to rousing Shuichi enough to get him to stand up. Usually he would have plenty of ideas as to how to do this and no qualms about using them but he knew Shuichi must have been exhausted to the point of stupor to fall asleep the way he did. Doing something like pinching his butt would be cruel under the circumstances.

Instead Eiri held Shuichi around the shoulders and tried pulling him up. Shuichi just flopped around, so Eiri tried talking to him first. "C'mon, Shuichi, you need to get up now so I can finish drying the floor," he said. Then he wrapped his arms around Shuichi's waist and pulled up.

This seemed to work better; with some difficulty he got Shuichi to his feet, although he wasn't well-balanced and staggered a few times before steadying himself. Eiri continued to hold him until it felt like he could stand on his own.

A slow trickle of tears began running down Shuichi's face after Eiri let go. He took in a halting breath and choked out, "I'm so sorry, Eiri. I didn't mean to fall asleep with the water running!"

"I know you didn't."

"Are you angry about it?"

"No – well, yes, I'm angry, but more about how much work it's going to be to fix things. Enough water soaked through that it's dripping into the apartment underneath this one. That's what the phone call was about. I've got to go see the woman who lives in that apartment about repairing the damage."

"I should pay for it."

"I was going to ask you to. But since the apartment's in my name, legally it's my responsibility, so I'll pay for it and you reimburse me, okay?"

"Sure." Shuichi thought Eiri was being unusually agreeable about this.

"Of course," Eiri added with a wicked glint in his eyes, "your reimbursement won't be limited to the amount of money I have to shell out to fix her apartment and ours. I may insist on some _other_ forms of compensation as well."

Shuichi was almost afraid to ask, or even think about, what Eiri would consider an appropriate form of compensation other than money. "Like what?"

Eiri smirked. "Oh, I'm sure I can think of something interesting."

Shuichi shivered. He wasn't sure whether to be excited or scared about the hold Eiri now had over him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Rating/Warnings:** Rated M for language, adult concepts, and nudity.

**Disclaimer:** Maki Murakami, Gentosha, TokyoPop and RightStuf own the rights to Gravitation and profit from it, not me. The crafty Granny Otoomo is my creation, though.

**Summary:** Eiri and Shuichi meet their downstairs neighbor, Granny Otoomo, as a result of a mishap in their apartment. Part of the "Unnatural Disasters" series of stories along with "Firestruck".

_2. __Granny Otoomo_

Shortly afterwards, Eiri and Shuichi left the apartment to visit their downstairs neighbor. All Eiri knew was her last name, Otoomo. He thought she was the petite elderly lady with gray hair piled on top of her head and a four-legged cane who he sometimes saw in the elevator or getting her mail. If he was right about who she was, she didn't get out much.

It took awhile for her to open the door after they knocked. When they entered, they noticed that she was hunched over; straightening up would probably add two more inches to her height. She stood to the side of the entryway and bent over even more in a bow. "Welcome to my humble abode, Ueusugi-san. And Shindou-san, right?"

They nodded in response to her greeting and Eiri replied, "Yes." She must have gotten their last names from the mailbox, which listed both their surnames. In order to protect his privacy, and also because all the paperwork regarding the apartment was in his legal name, his surname was listed as "Uesugi", not "Yuki". Sometimes mail addressed to him as Eiri Yuki by those who knew his address but not his real name, or who forgot what his real name was, arrived there and sometimes it didn't; those who knew what they were doing either addressed the mail to Eiri Uesugi or sent it to Eiri Yuki c/o Eiri Uesugi.

Mrs. Otoomo moved with a great deal of dignity and fluidity despite her age and infirmities. "Please, come in and sit down," she said, sweeping her arm out to the side to direct them to the living room.

"Shouldn't we go look at the damage in your bathroom first?" Eiri asked.

"We will do that in due time, Uesugi-san. First I would like to sit down and have a proper visit with my upstairs neighbors, for we are finally meeting after a long time."

Eiri and Shuichi looked at each other, puzzled. Eiri shrugged. It would be rude to turn down Mrs. Otoomo's hospitality. Shuichi felt a stab of sympathy for their neighbor, who clearly was lonely.

They followed her into the living room. She indicated that they should sit on an old-fashioned couch on which they perched gingerly, as it looked like it might be an antique.

"Would you like some tea?" she asked. They had already spotted plates of cookies and crackers on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

It would be rude to decline her hospitality, so they both said yes even though Eiri usually drank coffee in the morning, not tea, and Shuichi still hadn't recovered completely from being soaked in warm water. He felt not unlike a teabag that had sat in boiling water too long.

They looked around the apartment while Mrs. Otoomo bustled around fetching their tea. Her apartment was almost the opposite of theirs. Every single scrap of space was occupied. Instead of modern abstract art, she had classic Japanese brush paintings and silk screens and reproduction Western still lifes on the walls. An impressive coromandel screen decorated with mother-of-pearl, jade, and cinnabar, probably worth millions of yen, commanded a corner of the room. The floor was lined with _faux_ tatami over which Persian rugs were laid. Elaborately decorated black lacquer cabinets and curio cases with exquisite ceramic and jade figurines lined the walls.

Although the room was cozy, it was also oppressive and a bit stuffy. The faint scent of jasmine incense lingered in the air. Needlework, knitting, and calligraphy in various stages of completion were scattered about the room, adding to the clutter.

Mrs. Otoomo wheeled in a cart with a teapot and three teacups on it, the crook of her cane dangling over her wrist. She poured tea for them and settled in a chair opposite the couch that bore cushions decorated in crewel. Given the needlework scattered about the room, there was every possibility that the crewelwork was her own.

"Now then," she said, "I am Otoomo Yuri and I am pleased to finally meet you. We have been neighbors too long without knowing each other. I have lived in this building for the past twenty years since my husband, may he know the blessings of nirvana, passed on. My only son lives in the States and is a professor of literature at MIT. Have you heard of it?"

Shuichi hadn't, but Eiri said, "Yes, I've heard of it. I lived in the States myself for a few years."

"May I be so impolite as to ask where?"

"In New York City."

"How exciting!" she exclaimed. "My son, Haruki, says that someday he will have to take me to New York when I visit him. He says the Broadway touring shows they get in Boston are not nearly as good as the real thing, but I've seen the ticket prices on Broadway and I think they are outrageous!"

Eiri, whose Broadway experience was limited to one disastrous visit to a musical with Tohma and Kitazawa that had devolved into a shouting match between them afterward, nodded politely. Shuichi, who probably would enjoy a Broadway musical very much, had no idea what she was talking about, really.

"But that's not important," she said. "Tell me a little about yourselves."

They shifted uncomfortably in their seats. They tried to keep their private life and public personas separate. They quietly signed autographs for other occupants of the building when approached to keep them from making a fuss – after all, a fan shouldn't be punished for living in the same building as they did – but they tried hard to be discreet.

"I'm a writer," Eiri said.

"How nice! My Haruki would probably enjoy picking your brain, since he teaches literature. Not writing, no. He writes papers analyzing what writers have written. He doesn't write books himself other than ones on the writers whose work he specializes in. So what type of writer are you?"

Eiri was tempted to say, "A good one," but instead he replied, "I write novels."

"How wonderful!" she exclaimed. "And you, Shindou-san?"

"I'm a singer and dancer," he said, having had a little time to think about his response while she was grilling Eiri.

"Oh! It sounds like you're the Tokyo equivalent of the actors in New York who appear in musicals."

"Sort of," Shuichi began, but he was cut off by her continuing the conversation.

"I am sure you both have lots of girls sending you love letters and beating down your doors," she said.

"Something like that," Eiri admitted, "but we try hard to keep our private life private." He gave Shuichi a meaningful glance.

"I admire that," she said. "Too many well-known entertainers these days" – Eiri bristled a little bit at being called, or compared to, an entertainer, then realized that the main purpose of a romance novel was, after all, entertainment and escape – "invite the limelight and then complain when they feel their privacy has been invaded. It is usually only because they do not like what is being reported about their private lives.

"Tell me," she said, smiling brightly, "how did the two of you wind up renting an apartment together? I know Tokyo rents are very expensive – after all I couldn't afford this apartment if it weren't for my Haruki's help – but how did you two meet?"

"That's a funny story-" Shuichi began but Eiri hushed him and said, "He knows my brother-in-law. We met through him."

Shuichi shot him a look for lying but Eiri ignored him.

"How nice to have a family connection!" she exclaimed. "Now that we have introduced ourselves – help yourselves to those snacks, boys, I put them out for you – I will show you the damage. The water seeped through to my bathroom, which I believe is below yours, so there is damage to the ceiling. The floor got wet but I don't believe it was harmed. The superintendent, knowing of my infirmities, very kindly helped me clean up and mop the floor so there would be no additional loss."

They followed her to the bathroom. Shuichi lounged against the wall, still tired, while Eiri examined the damage. He told Mrs. Otoomo he would call a contractor to make arrangements to visit both apartments and provide him with an estimate and would have him make sure the date and time were convenient for her.

"I'm here most of the time," she said, "so that should be no problem. Now, would you like some homemade _mochi_? I made _daifuku._"

They tried to decline; Eiri was anxious to let the superintendent know about the arrangements and to locate a suitable contractor and Shuichi wanted to get some rest, but Mrs. Otoomo pressed them to stay and share some _daifuku_ and more tea. Since she was so insistent, and seemed to want company, they stayed long enough to eat a few pieces of _daifuku _each and have another cup of tea.

Mrs. Otoomo beamed at them throughout the ensuing discussion and sent them home with leftover _daifuku _and a promise to come visit her and to call her Granny Otoomo. "What a really nice elderly lady," Shuichi said as they walked away. "And her mochi is delicious."

"Mmm," Eiri said, surreptitiously eating a few crumbs that had escaped from the aluminum-foil in which the _daifuku_ was wrapped. "She seems to want company. She must be lonely since the rest of her family lives overseas."

* * *

That is how Eiri "Yuki" Uesugi and Shuichi Shindou became acquainted with Granny Otoomo, who continued lavishing "these nice young men" with home-cooked meals – "just like your granny made," she'd say – and snacks and hand-knit sweaters and other craftwork.

Shuichi made a point of visiting her at least once a week when he was in town. Even the more unsociable Eiri, who tried to hide the fact that he was home more often than Shuichi (although he suspected the sharp-eyed Granny already knew that), visited her on his own on occasion, although he usually provided himself with an excuse, like returning the pan that had held the brownies she made.

They tolerated getting their cheeks pinched and remarks about how she was going to find nice girls for both of them. "How can she not know we're a couple?" Shuichi once asked Eiri.

"Gay people don't exist in her world," Eiri surmised. "Besides, her bedroom is not directly below ours. If it were she'd have to be deaf not to realize what we get up to there."

Shuichi blushed and agreed it was just as well their honorary granny was unaware of their fame and sexual preferences. At least it meant they had one neighbor who had befriended them for themselves and as individuals, not because they were lovers or symbols of gay pride or famous.

All of this didn't stop Eiri from insisting that Shuichi repay him for the repairs he'd had to make to their bathroom and Granny Otoomo's. They may have gotten a friend out of the deal, but fair was fair. Shuichi thought about asking Sakano to reimburse him; after all, it was the insane hours he'd put them through that caused him to fall asleep in the first place. But he realized that made as much sense as blaming Eiri's insatiability for the accident. He was the one who forgot to turn the water off and he was the one who should pay to fix the damage.

The only one who didn't make out better as a result was Momo, who had such a complex about the bathroom that she wouldn't enter it for months. It reminded her too much of the time the human who rescued her from life on the streets almost drowned her.

***

Granny Otoomo sealed up the latest package she was sending her son Haruki. Being a technical institute, MIT was an odd place for a professor of literature to land, but he enjoyed it and its sometimes strange but brilliant and nerdy students.

Inside the package, along with the usual delicacies which were difficult to obtain even in the Boston area, was the letter that usually accompanied her packages. Among other things, she wrote:

_You may be interested to know that I've met famous romance novelist Yuki Eiri. I don't know if you know of him or his work, as Japanese romance novels are not exactly your area of specialty. He lives upstairs from me, practically right over my head. Shindou Shuichi, the lead singer of the latest J-pop sensation Bad Luck – do you know anything about them? – is his live-in lover and boyfriend. _

_We met over a shared natural disaster. Shindou-san fell asleep while running bath water and let the tub overflow. Yuki-sensei might have kept him up late the night before. At any rate, Yuki-sensei is paying to replace the ceiling in my bathroom. I have the feeling he's demanded reimbursement from Shindou-san for it. _

_They try hard to maintain their privacy in the face of a media onslaught so I thought they might find it reassuring if I pretended not to know who they are or that they are lovers. While the layout of our apartments is not exactly the same – the apartments are bigger and more elaborate the higher up you go – it would be impossible for me not to know that they are lovers. Perhaps it's because Shindou-san is a professional singer, but they are rather loud and I am not as deaf as people think I am. _

_It is probably just as well for them to have a friend in the building they can visit and confide in without worrying that I will talk to the media or judge them based on their sexual orientation or public personas. I amuse myself by offering to fix them up with young women and bringing them food I've baked or cooked. It gives me something to do and it's pointless for me to make meals just for myself. I may even give them some of my craft projects. They are beginning to take over the apartment. _

_Give Lorna and the children my best and keep those dogs of yours out of trouble. Yuki-sensei's household includes a little cat that is well on her way to becoming the most spoiled cat in the world. Shindou-san is more open about loving her and treating her like a pampered princess but I suspect that quietly, behind his back, Yuki-sensei is the one who spoils her more._

Love, Kaasan


	3. Chapter 3

**Rating/Warnings:** Rated M for language, adult concepts, and nudity.

**Disclaimer:** Maki Murakami, Gentosha, TokyoPop and RightStuf own the rights to Gravitation and profit from it, not me. The crafty Granny Otoomo is my creation, though.

**Summary:** Eiri and Shuichi meet their downstairs neighbor, Granny Otoomo, as a result of a mishap in their apartment. Part of the "Unnatural Disasters" series of stories along with "Firestruck".

_3. __Epilogue_

Shuichi bent over the coffee table dressed in a scandalously short French maid's outfit, cap and all, flicking a feather duster at the table. Eiri sat on the couch watching him, taking pictures, and touching himself. Shuichi thought about Eiri's creative ways of making him pay for letting the tub overflow. The absence of underwear was hindering his completion of the tasks Eiri had set out for him but was helping stiffen his resolve.

Eiri reached out to touch his lover and smiled, satisfied that the compensation he had arranged met his objectives. While Shuichi would probably have agreed to these things even without having something held over his head, it was more fun this way. All Eiri had to do was make it clear that this one favor wasn't going to be enough to compensate him for his time and trouble cleaning up and fixing the bathroom. More would be required.

/fin/

* * *

Glossary:

_onsen_ – hot springs  
_kami - _spirit  
_mochi_ – cake made from pounded glutinous rice  
_daifuku_ – _mochi_ with a sweet filling  
_Kaasan_ - Mother

* * *

A/N – I have jumped ahead some in my description of Momo the cat. I plan on writing a follow up to "Stray" describing her first visit to the vet, how she got her name (I've let that cat out of the bag already, I'm afraid, but it'll explain why), her getting fixed and why, and the secret of her changing eye color that will require traveling back in time from what's described here.

Granny Otoomo's a sly one. I like her and her deviousness a lot, even though I don't usually like devious people, because she's being devious in a good cause. She resembles Eiri in liking to mess with people and resembles Shuichi in presenting herself as somewhat more dimwitted (and deaf) than she really is.

Much love to my beta HawkClowd and a big thank you to Aja for culinary and linguistic suggestions.


End file.
